Public Funding for Rarity: Some American Debates

Reference Type Journal Article
Year of Publication
1996
Contributors Author: Neil Harris
Journal
Libraries & Culture
Volume
31
Issue
1
Pagination
36-55
Language
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Region
Library Type
Chronological Period
Abstract
American legislators, on every level of government, have generally resisted direct purchase of rare books, manuscripts, and art. Tax-based support for libraries was indeed well established by the late nineteenth century, but this did not normally mean acquisition of items that were expensive, had reliquary or associational value, or were accessible only to the learned. Such purchases were left to private collectors, who could, in the twentieth century at least, expect tax exemptions from their gifts to libraries and museums. Examining a series of congressional and municipal debates that involved the Library of Congress and the Boston Public Library, this paper attempts to assess changing attitudes toward the acquisition of rarity, and to reflect upon the costs as well as the benefits of our mixed public-private system.